SG solar facility celebrates first million rolled

Norwegian international solar company, REC, has officially opened one of the world's largest integrated wafer, cell and module manufacturing facilities in Tuas, Singapore. This is the single largest investment ever made by REC, and one of the biggest clean tech investment ever made in Singapore, amounting to SGD 2.5 billion or $1.94 billion.

Initially, volumes of 740 MW for wafers, 550 MW for cells, and 590 MW for modules were announced. The new capacity target for modules is 800 MW in 2012, signifying an increase of 35 percent compared with the design capacity. The facility currently makes over 190,000 modules per month, with a competitive cell efficiency target of 16.8 percent by 2011, an improvement over earlier production.

The one millionth module is part of the REC Peak Energy Series which is the first product manufactured at Tuas. The REC Peak Energy Series is already installed in over twelve countries. Thanks to to several design improvements, the module offers more power per square meter resulting in approximately 7 percent improved energy output. The modules produced in 2011 at the new REC facility could offset 25 million tons of CO2 from coal fired power plants, throughout their lifetime. Such energy is enough to meet the annual electricity needs of 150,000 Singaporean households.